Tag:

Suspense

Review

Kill Your Darlings

by Brian Kenney

Here are two people I certainly will never invite to Thanksgiving. Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over 25 years. Academics, they’ve long been settled in Updike territory along the North Shore of Boston with a cat and a nearly full-grown kid. She’s barely published as a poet while he is an English professor and full-on drunkard. The two might seem a bit dull were it not for how sinister we slowly come to realize they actually are. Swanson (The Kind Worth Saving, Nine Lives) gradually unveils their marriage by going backwards, all the way back to the tragic incident the two plotted and committed in their early twenties. But years of secrecy have taken their toll, and not everyone is willing to keep up the original bargain. Swanson can always be trusted to deliver novels that are rich in intellectual suspense and provide a narrative that is refreshingly new. Here he delivers on both.

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Review

Plays Well With Others

by Brian Kenney

You won’t find any members of organized crime here. Nor are the characters locked on a Scottish island or seeking a cozy murderer who has their community petrified. In fact, men have practically no roles in this book. And who needs them? The small group of suburban women who populate this novel are terrifying enough. Let’s start out with Jake, who a year ago endured her then-bestie posting their most intimate correspondence on social media. The result? Jake lost everything: job, house, and, most importantly, her husband. After a bit of sulking and trying to live down her past, Jake is back—she settles into a charming bungalow—and gets ready to retaliate. But this time she has a new friend with her, Mabel, who has her own set of problems. The two join up to seek revenge, although the real victims turn out to be the kids, who find themselves in the cross-fires (for real!). Is anyone in this terrifying community without a grievance? A compulsive domestic thriller that is as dark as it is dangerous.

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Review

Strangers in Time

by Jeff Ayers

The horrors of war are reflected in the lives of three people in Baldacci’s (A Calamity of Souls) latest. Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters lives with his grandmother in cramped conditions. She thinks Charlie is spending his weekdays in school, but he has quit and spends the day roaming the streets, stealing food and money to survive. His goal is to eventually enlist and fight the Germans for taking away his parents and his sense of safety. When he steals from Ignatius Oliver’s bookshop, rather than demanding punishment for Charlie, Ignatius treats him well, almost like a father would. Like Charlie, Ignatius is dealing with loss, but it’s his wife instead of his parents. When 15-year-old Molly Wakefield returns to London after spending time away from the big city and conflict, she is horrified to learn her parents did not survive the bombing. The three bond, throughout the war trusting and protecting one another from a relentless enemy and secrets they can’t see coming. Baldacci chronicles the story of this makeshift family brought together by circumstances out of their control and how they can survive and confront whatever awaits. The author does a terrific job of transporting the reader back in time to a tumultuous period of living in London, and readers will practically smell the smoke and feel surrounded by rubble from the shattered buildings. Another great tale from a grandmaster storyteller.

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Review

Kills Well with Others

by Henrietta Thornton

They’re back! The trained assassins readers first met and loved in Killers of a Certain Age (2022) are on another mission, but things are odd this time. The group of women, which resembles nothing so much as a book club that’s enjoying itself a bit too much, is summoned to a new job, but given tickets for coach airfare…decidedly not the style they’re accustomed to. The usual impeccable preparedness is lacking in other ways, too—no backup murder weapon provided? What is this?—and things go completely off the rails—pun intended, as the worldwide escapades after looted art and to flee revenge end up with the women on a lethal train journey through Montenegro. The Bond-type exploits are exciting and the art-history details absorbing, but as in the previous book, it’s the realistic friendships and love—including same-sex romance—that will keep readers wanting more from Raybourn. An invigorating read that will lift readers’ spirits.

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Review

Parents Weekend

by Jeff Ayers

Santa Clara University hosts an annual Parents Weekend for students’ families. In Finlay’s latest thriller, he showcases five families with baggage, from students hiding secrets to their parents with facades created to ignore reality. This generational mess creates a drama school larger than anything New York or Los Angeles universities have ever seen, with dysfunction ruling the day. The parents and youngsters are supposed to attend a dinner event together, but only the adults show up. Numerous calls and texts to the kids go unanswered, and the worries grow. An accidental drowning of a student a couple of days earlier may hold the key. FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller arrives to find answers. Keller was seen in Finlay’s earlier novels Every Last Fear and The Night Shift, and fans will be thrilled to see her again, while newcomers will fall in love with her. As Keller talks to the parents of the missing students, she begins to uncover the truth of what each family wants to avoid. Finlay tells the story from the parents’ perspective, occasionally peering into the five missing students’ lives without revealing too much. He crafts a genuine page-turner with a cast of flawed and realistic human characters. Plan a weekend to devour this terrific thriller.

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Review

The Wolf Tree

by Willy Williams

Eight months after a traumatic on-the-job accident almost killed her, George (Georgina) Lennox has been assigned her first case as a newly promoted Glasgow DI: to investigate the suicide of 18-year-old Alan Ferguson on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. A disappointed George protests to her boss: “Because nothing happens out there. These islands are medieval time capsules with a population of relics.” Arriving on the stark and barren Eilean Eadar with her partner, Richie Stewart, she finds an isolated community that still clings to its ancient Catholic faith (in Protestant Scotland) and that is deeply suspicious of outsiders. As George and Richie interview the locals, George senses that something is off about the place and its people. Mysterious double spirals are engraved into the village houses and farm crofts. The long abandoned lighthouse where Alan fell is also the site where three lighthouse keepers disappeared mysteriously a century ago. Late at night, George hears the howling of a wolf and spots a masked figure outside her window. Who is trying to thwart the investigation? At the same time, George and Richie clash over the DI’s use of prescription pain medication and her reckless tendency to charge into risky situations without backup. George is a compelling sleuth, tough yet also vulnerable and not always likable, but she has great chemistry with the fatherly Richie. Debut author McCluskey has written a compellingly spooky and creepy mystery with a hint of folk horror à la The Wicker Man. Fans of Ann Cleeves’s Shetland crime novels and Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy will delight in this atmospheric thriller.

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Review

Cold Burn

by Henrietta Thornton

Brace yourself. Landau (pseudonym for authors Jeff Ayers and Jon Land) is back with a new National Parks-based thriller, and it’s even more breakneck-speed than the last. This time, several mysteries entwine, starting with the fate of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) workers who disappear after the reader follows their every panicked move as an avalanche descends on them at the Lamplugh Glacier in Alaska’s Glacier Bay. Michael Walker, a special agent with the National Parks Investigative Services Branch, hero of Leave No Trace (2024) is dispatched to find them, working with Tlingits, Natives whose animosity toward white outsiders has been well earned. At the other end of the country, a USGS intern is found dead, his cause of death seemingly impossible. And the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine finds itself in terrible peril, the claustrophobia and fear seeping off the pages. There are several highlights here, in addition to the fast-paced, dangerous subplots: a respectful look at the Tlingits and their ways, with a show of force by the tribe creating knife-edge suspense near book’s end; a young Tlingit woman, Amka Reynolds, whose scientific know-how and dedication to her community will make her a reader favorite; and the continued look, in protagonist Walker, at a disabled character with a physically active career, realistically hampered at times but getting on with it. For fans of Landau, outdoorsy thrillers, and stories about the effects of technology (you’ll see).

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Review

Claire, Darling

by Brian Kenney

Yes, her childhood was terrifying, with a mother who made Mommie Dearest seem like milquetoast. But, these days, Claire has really got it together. Now she’s 30, with a job in PR that she always wanted and a fiancé, Noah, who’s handsome and loving; life couldn’t be better. Even her horrible mother died a few months ago, freeing Claire, although leaving her nothing in her will. Until one day when she decides to drop off lunch for Noah at his office—it’s their anniversary—and the receptionist won’t let her in. In fact, she claims that Noah hasn’t worked there in three months. Whaaaat? That night, Noah doesn’t show up at the apartment they share. He’s not picking up her calls. Not answering her texts. In the days to come, and with the help of her friend Sukhi, Claire tracks Noah through every channel possible, getting repeatedly blocked along the way and transforming from a happy young woman to a stalker, obsessed with the beautiful blonde woman who keeps showing up in Noah’s socials. A psychological thriller that will delight readers who enjoy fiction that’s thoughtful but also reads like a rocket. If you appreciated Kimberly McCreight’s Like Mother, Like Daughter, you may well like this.

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Review

If Two Are Dead

by Jeff Ayers

Luke Conway and his wife, Carrie, are moving from LA back to Clear River, Texas, where they grew up, so they can help Carrie’s father, who is gravely ill. For police officer Luke, it is a chance to escape a shooting that has traumatized him, and he’s now a county deputy. Carrie has baggage as well, but she is heading towards it. When she was a high-school junior, she was the sole survivor of an incident that left two girls dead and her with a chip in her skull. She barely survived and can’t remember any details of that day. One evening, while off-duty, Luke appears to hit someone while driving home in the pouring rain. Inspecting the area provides no evidence of a body, so he leaves and doesn’t report it. Luke tells himself that he hit a tree branch, but deep down, he knows he hit someone and decides to keep it a secret. Carrie arrives in town to find a not-so-warm welcome and soon learns that some there believe she killed the two girls years ago and is faking amnesia. Luke and Carrie need each other’s support, but running from the truth only makes matters worse for their marriage and their lives. Mofina generates suspense in unexpected ways and crafts a compelling, genius story that ends in a manner not even savvy readers will see coming. His background as a newspaper reporter allows him to craft realistic characters who face overwhelming odds. Harlan Coben and Alex Finlay fans should already have Mofina on their to-read pile, and this one is another guaranteed bestseller.

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Review

The Last Hamilton

by Jeff Ayers

Bregman takes the history of Alexander Hamilton and his legacy, mixes it with a modern-day conspiracy, and delivers a fun and engaging read. Elizabeth Walker is the last heir of the Hamilton family line, and when she passes away, that’s it. During research, Elizabeth uncovers a key created during Hamilton’s life. On her way home after, she’s followed, and in the New York subway, rather than have the key taken, Elizabeth texts her best friend, Sarah Brockman, to contact Elizabeth’s husband, Ralph. Then she jumps in front of an oncoming train. Sarah, devastated by Elizabeth’s death, receives a box of documents her friend sent over before her death. Working with Ralph, they are shocked to learn that a secret society established by Hamilton still exists today. The bedrock of this society has kept the United States strong all these years. Still, sinister forces want to destroy the States, and they have plans to use Hamilton’s legacy to cause economic chaos by eliminating the foundation of the American dollar. Bregman has crafted a page-turning thriller of history and the financial world that will have readers wondering if any of the story could be real. Steve Berry and Dan Brown fans will want to add this to their reading list.

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